Tener

‘Tener‘, usually translated as ‘to have‘, is a very useful verb. It’s primary use is to indicate possession. However, in Spanish ‘tener’ is used in a number of idiomatic expressions that indicate emotions and states.

As with the verbs ‘ser‘ and ‘estar‘, the English verb ‘tohave’ has two versions in Spanish; ‘tener’ which we will cover here, and ‘haber’. ‘Haber’ (which is covered here), is the equivalent of the English auxiliary verb ‘to have‘ as in ‘you have played’ and should never be used to express possession.

Here are the conjugations of the verb ‘tener‘ in the present tense.
(For a complete printable conjugation sheet, showing all the irregular parts of ‘tener’ click here or on the image above)

Yo tengo

I have

Tú tienes

You have (familiar)(sing.)

Él tiene

He has

Ella tiene

She has

Nosotros tenemos

We have

Vosotros teneis

You have (polite)(plur.)

Ellos tienen

They have

Most of the time the verb ‘tener‘ is used in very much the same way as the possessive form of ‘to have’ in English:

Yo tengo dos hijos

I have two children

El tiene un coche blanco

He has a white car

Tuvimos cuatro casas

We had four houses

Ellos tienen una escuela buena

They have a good school

However, this is not always the case…

Some common expressions using the irregular Spanish verb ‘tener‘:

In Spanish many things are possessed that in English would make no sense at all, for example in Spanish you have hunger rather than being hungry, and you have 20 years rather than being 20 years old.